U.K. phone hacking jury told to ignore media chatter

Former editors on trial for hacking, obstruction, and making illegal payments

In this July 9, 2011 photo, News of the World tabloid newspaper editor Colin Myler poses with a front page of the last edition. The phone hacking scandal led the publisher, Rupert Murdoch's News International, to close the paper permanently. (Sang Tan/Associated Press)

Nine women and three men were sworn in as a jury Tuesday to hear Britain's tabloid phone hacking trial — and warned by the judge to ignore a morass of "inaccurate and misleading" reports about the high-profile case.

Two former senior executives in Rupert Murdoch's media empire — former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson — and six others face charges stemming from the revelation that employees at the Murdoch-owned tabloid eavesdropped on the phone voicemails of celebrities, politicians, crime victims and others in their search for scoops. They all deny the charges.

The hacking scandal led Murdoch to shut the 168-year-old newspaper and continues to shake Britain's media, police and political establishments.

Judge John Saunders told the jury at London's Central Criminal Court that the case had received "an unprecedented amount" of publicity that they must ignore in order to try the defendants on the evidence alone.

'Not only the defendants are on trial; British justice is on trial'- Judge John Sanders

"Not only the defendants are on trial; British justice is on trial," he said.

Saunders said much commentary on the case had been "inaccurate and misleading" as well as "offensive and demeaning to some of the defendants."

"It is essential that you put all that material ... out of your mind," he said. "It is the verdict of you 12, and only you 12, that we want at the end of this trial."

The judge also told the jury to ignore the storm of chatter about the case, from tweets from opinionated celebrities to the satirical magazine Private Eye, which emblazoned a picture of the flame-haired Brooks on the cover of its latest "Halloween special" issue.

"It is meant to be satire," he told the jury. "You ignore it."

The British judicial system often tries to keep jurors from seeing material that lawyers fear may prejudice a trial, and the latest issue of Private Eye drew inquiries from the police.

The Metropolitan Police said officers questioned a newspaper vendor outside Farringdon train and subway station, near the court, and warned him the publication might be in contempt of court.

The vendor, Tom McCarthy, said he refused to remove the magazine from sale, and the attorney general's office announced later Tuesday that it was not going to take legal action against Private Eye.

8 defendants

The eight defendants in the phone hacking case were told to stand in the dock as the seven-count indictment was read against them. Prosecution lawyer Andrew Edis is due to begin his case Wednesday, outlining in detail the allegations of criminal activity by the former media high-flyers.

The case — expected to last up to six months — is the first major criminal trial spawned by the 2011 revelation that the News of the World had hacked the mobile phone voicemails of kidnapped 13-year-old Milly Dowler, who was later found murdered.

Brooks, 45, edited both the News of the World and its sister paper, The Sun, and was chief executive of Murdoch's British newspaper division. Coulson, 45, also edited the News of the World before becoming communications chief to Prime Minister David Cameron.

Former News of the World national newspaper editor Rebekah Brooks, accompanied by her husband Charlie Brooks, left, leaves the Central Criminal Court in London. (Lefteris Pitarakis/Associated Press)

Brooks and Coulson face charges of conspiring to intercept communications — phone hacking — and conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office, which refers to illegal payments to officials.

Former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner and ex-news editor Ian Edmondson also are charged with phone hacking — in conjunction with Brooks, Coulson and others — over a period stretching from 2000 to 2006.

The paper's former royal editor, Clive Goodman, is charged with conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office alongside Coulson.

Brooks, her husband Charles Brooks, her former assistant Cheryl Carter and former News International security chief Mark Hanna are charged with attempting to obstruct the phone hacking investigation by withholding documents, computers and other equipment from police.

The phone-hacking scandal spurred a U.K. judge-led media-ethics inquiry and wide-ranging criminal investigations into hacking, bribery and other illegal behavior.

Dozens of journalists and officials have been arrested, and Britain's free-wheeling press is under intense political pressure to submit to tougher regulation.

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